Irvine Eats

Last month, my mom and I went to visit my brother down in Irvine. Why, do you ask? Well, for starters, he goes to school down there. He’s a junior in college. It’s also my first time visiting his school. Finally, right? Well, every time my parents went, I always had a reason to stay behind. I figured it was finally time to check it out.

It was also an excuse for a mini-vacation and all the different selections of food. I had a plenty to eat while I was down there and was very pleased at where I ate. Let’s take a look at a few of the most enjoyable places.

85 Degrees Bakery and Cafe
This was a must for me to visit because my parents would always bring some pastries back up for me and they are so delicious. They have cakes there too, but that would not last a road trip up.

This bakery is so popular, it’s insane! It has a 30 minute wait pretty much all the time. There’s even two lines! One to get into the bakery and one to purchase your pastries.

Once you get inside, you get to choose yourself what pastries you want. You get a tong and grab ’em. It’s quite fun. However, if this is your first time there, you would have to base your choices solely on how they look like or ask the assistant who stands in that area because they have no labels.

Then you get to wait in line to make your purchases. When you are at the cashier, that is when you can buy any cakes or desserts that are in the display.

If you do buy a dessert, you will have to wait again for them. They assign you a number and call you when it’s ready. I had to wait 10 minutes to get my soft cream cheese cake.

This is the cute box it comes in for just a slice.

The cheese cake was just ok. It’s good, but nothing too spectacular.

My favorite kind of bread they have is the big brioche bowl! It’s huge and I can eat all of it in one sitting! This is the bread already half eaten. I started to eat it, as well as my brother, and I remembered to take a picture. 🙂

Yes, this place is so dang popular and there is so much waiting, but so worth it though!

We even came back on our last day in Irvine to get this!

This is the Strawberry Tiramisu. Now this cake is something else! The cake is so creamy and has such a light and refreshing taste to it. I absolutely loved this cake. I am so glad we came back to get this. Oh, and we also got some more of our favorite breads… that meant more brioche bowls for me! Bwhaha.

If you are ever in Irvine, California, come visit this bakery. It’s the only one in the country!

Sam Woo Restaurant
This is another restaurant that my parents always go to when they visit my brother. It’s a Chinese restaurant specializing in seafood.

Yes, they are one of those restaurants with this kind of fish staring at you.

We were placed right in front of this fish tank. Um… yeah. It was kind of weird with all the fish staring at me eat my food.

Anyway, my parents always get the Peking Duck there with steamed buns. This has to be one of my favorite meals. I wanted to go to this restaurant just because of the Peking Duck. I am so glad I tried it because the skin is so crispy and paired with the steamed bun and Hoisin sauce, it’s quite delectable.

We also had some fried rice and Mongolian Beef, but that just doesn’t compare to the great Peking Duck!

I also find that some Asian restaurants have two parts of the building. They have one side dedicated to just a quick bite to eat in a casual environment. Another side is dedicated to a more formal environment. It’s quite confusing, but yet makes sense. We ate in the more formal environment because we didn’t have cash on us and the casual environment only accepts cash.

Chick Fil-A
I asked my brother where there was a place to eat that’s quick and delicious for our last day in Irvine. He mentioned Chick-Fil-A because it’s got everything chicken because our family just loves chicken, no joke. Every week, we have chicken at least 4 times throughout. It’s quite funny because before I left for Irvine, I was looking through Kim’s blog to see if she had any reviews for good places to eat in So Cal and saw this post. I really wanted to go there, but it was in L.A. I had no idea they had one in Irvine too! I was excited to try it.

My brother got the regular chicken sandwich. Look at that nice piece of lettuce… none of that shredded stuff.

I got the chicken nuggets.

The chicken is super fresh and the waffle fries are crispy and has great taste. Not a bad meal to end our trip in Irvine!

Oh! Did I mention that they have like 6 different dips! And their ketchup is in a neat little dip package. My favorite is their original Chick-fil-A sauce. Yum!

My favorite part of the trip was definitely going to 85 Degree Bakery and Cafe. I would love it if they had one closer to home, but it’s better this way. Or else I would have bread there every single day and get fat. I love my bread 🙂